Swedish high-end watchmaker Anicorn has announced a collaboration with Kojima Productions and NASA, resulting in a gorgeous watch called Homo Ludens (opens in new tab). It is silver with gold detailing, with NASA stamping well below center on the dial and the Kojima Productions slogan “From Sapiens to Ludens” engraved on the outer case.
Anicorn says the project took two years and the watch was designed under the supervision of Hideo Kojima and Yoji Shinkawa. The watch appears to represent “the correlation of time, space and homo Ludens” and Anicorn was “inspired by Ludens to proclaim creativity, imagination and the element of play in culture”.
Ludens is the name of Kojima Productions’ mascot (designed by Shinkawa and represents an astronaut exploring digital space), and Kojima is no doubt delighted that they were able to place the NASA logo there (the space agency has previously worked with Anicorn). The watch’s design is said to mirror that of the EVA suit (Extra Vehicular Activity and a nice Evangelion reference) to the extent that the sales material calls it an “EVA Creative Suit on the Wrist”.
The clock isn’t the only thing that came out of it, oh no. There’s a t-shirt with the NASA logo on the front and the Kojima Productions motto on the back with EVA suit details, and a Ludens-Sacoche, which means bag in French. You couldn’t call it a Ludens bag?
Then the highlight: “Exclusive to the Rare Edition, Luden’s Mask is a life-size, 1:1 scale collectible that is actually wearable – every one of us is Ludens.”
Yes, you’ve read that correctly. This thing is called, and it deserves the all-caps, SPACE LUDENS and comes in the Ludens Mask Rare Edition. One hundred of these will be available and they will be produced to a movie prop standard (whatever that means, I’ve seen some pretty bad movie props) through the “Multi Jet Fusion Process”. Which sounds like a pretty exciting way to make a mask.
SPACE LUDENS is “presented in a special box containing a numbered metal plaque with an individual number and a bespoke booklet detailing the history of the collaboration. Additional special art handling gloves are included with the Rare Edition.” Including art handling gloves for a skull mask? There’s a bit of chutzpah about this collaboration.
Should I imagine you have several thousand dollars to spare, the watch etc. will go on sale on September 27th. Anicorn’s various collaborations all seem to sell out pretty quickly, and this one won’t be an exception. The rest of us can, I suppose, stare into space.
